Nextlaw Labs, the innovative tech venture development company launched by global law firm Dentons, and Legal Geek today announced the 20 legal tech startups that have been selected for travel grants to attend the Legal Geek Conference in London on 17 October, 2017.

The grants were awarded following a competitive pitch process involving 48 startups, conducted during the Legal Geek Road Trip last month. The trip, organized in partnership with Nextlaw Labs, visited European legal tech hubs in Amsterdam, Berlin, Brussels, and Paris over the course of 16 days. The selected startups were chosen by Nextlaw Labs and lawyers from Dentons.

Legal Geek Founder Jimmy Vestbirk said: “The road trip was amazing. We travelled almost 4,000 kilometers across four countries to meet with nearly 700 legal professionals, who all share a passion for LawTech and a desire to disrupt and improve the legal profession through technology.

“Many congratulations to the 20 startups selected, to have such an exciting group of European LawTech startups present at the Legal Geek Conference 2017 will add an extra dimension to this year’s event, which will be the biggest and best yet.

“Legal Geek’s European footprint has now been well and truly established and a massive high five needs to go to Nextlaw Labs and Dentons for making it happen and for providing the travel grants.”

CEO of Nextlaw Labs Dan Jansen said: “Following a truly epic road trip, we are excited to see the next generation of the most innovative legal tech companies join us in London. We are looking forward to learning more and working with Legal Geek to support the legal tech space in Europe.”

The Legal Geek Road Trip 2017 started on 12 June with the aim of finding and engaging thriving startups outside the London legal tech scene.

Legal Geek Founder Jimmy Vestbirk set off in a 1971 VW camper van (called Betty) headed for Amsterdam to interview eight startups and host a networking event in conjunction with the Dutch Legal Tech.

The third stop was in Brussels where Legal Geek and Legal Tech Belgium arranged interviews with eight Belgian startups.

Then van then travelled to Paris for the penultimate stop in the French capital where Legal Geek held a pitch event for 20 startups with the support of Open Law and Village de LegalTech.

The final stop was back in London for a visit to Thomson Reuters’ headquarters in Canary Wharf and a meeting with Thomson Reuters Legal UKI, Dentons and Nextlaw Labs. Thomson Reuters and Legal Geek released a report titled “Movers and Shakers: UK Lawtech Startups” at the meeting, and invited one of the startups featured in the article and Nextlaw Labs portfolio company, Libryo, to present.

At each stop, lawyers from Dentons and representatives from Nextlaw Labs were present to network with the startups and listen to their pitches.

About Nextlaw Labs

Nextlaw Labs is a business accelerator focused on investing in, developing and deploying new technologies to transform the practice of law. It is an autonomous, wholly owned subsidiary of global law firm Dentons with physical and virtual locations in technology centers worldwide. Through complementary and strategic partnerships with leading technology companies, startups, other business accelerators and established legal vendors, Nextlaw Labs will invest in promising companies and develop a suite of new technologies that fundamentally change the practice of law, improving client service and enhancing client solutions. www.nextlawlabs.com

About Dentons

Dentons is the world’s largest law firm, delivering quality and value to clients around the globe. Dentons is a leader on the Acritas Global Elite Brand Index, a BTI Client Service 30 Award winner and recognized by prominent business and legal publications for its innovations in client service, including founding Nextlaw Labs and the Nextlaw Global Referral Network. Dentons’ polycentric approach and world-class talent challenge the status quo to advance client interests in the communities in which we live and work. www.dentons.com

About Legal Geek

Legal Geek’s aim is to make the UK a global hub for legal startups. The Legal Geek community consists of over 4,000 global members and organises events and grass root meetups. Initiatives include a Women in LawTech meetup group to use tech to enable cultural change and a not-for-profit which organises hackathons, including recently organising a hackathon for the UK Government court service (HMCTS). Legal Geeks’ approach is to provide structure around the unstructured legal startup landscape, culminating in a 1,000-person conference, 17th October 2017, Shoreditch London.